Brick or Brambles? The 'Wall' Separating Religion and Government

The First Amendment bars the U.S. Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion. But what about the States? What about local municipalities? How wide and how deep is the definition of "establishment"? How stable are the foundations of the famous "wall" that separates church and state?

Bring your history books, your questions, and notes from your Constitutional Law 101 course. This will be a group discussion with a 60-minute documentary film sandwiched in the middle.

The documentary, "The Lord Is Not on Trial Here Today," is being shown courtesy of the filmmaker, Jay Rosenstein. It portrays the work of Vashti McCollum (pictured), defendant in a landmark 1948 Supreme Court case that struck down religious education in the public schools.

Discussion leader Daniel Brzovic is an attorney with the Oakland office of Disability Rights California. He is a 1979 graduate of Berkeley Law with over 30 years' experience representing people with disabilities in a wide range of matters in state and federal court.

This event is presented by the Bay Area Skeptics <http://www.baskeptics.org>.